Thursday in the House, and the benches were slowly filling up as a number of MPs, including Thomas Mulcair, made statements about the day of remembrance for the École Polytechnique, which takes place tomorrow. When QP got underway, Mulcair surprised us all by first asking about rail safety and ignored warnings against the company that eventually caused the Lac Mégantic disaster. Harper got up and assured him that the government has invested record amounts in new inspections. Mulcair pressed at length, accusing Harper not not caring enough about the 47 victims, but Harper rather calmly asserted that he was doing a lot for the community and had visited several times. Mulcair switched of English to keep pressing, to which Harper asserted that they don’t know all of the facts, even if Mulcair claimed they did. Mulcair switched tracks, and asked why they weren’t allowing Michael Runia from testifying in the Senate, but Harper insisted that the auditors who performed the audit had already testified that there was no interference. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and carried on about the allegations against Runia and Gerstein, but Paul Calandra repeated Harper’s talking points. Marc Garneau repeated the he same in French, not that Calandra’s response changed.
Tag Archives: Nigel Wright
QP: Responsible for his own ministry
For the first time this week, all three leaders were in the House and ready to go. Without adieu, Thomas Mulcair got to the point and ask if Benjamin Perrin was dismissed or if he resigned. Harper said that Perrin left of his own accord nine months ago. Mulcair brought up the guidelines around email retention and asked why they were broken. Harper said that they are expected to follow the rules and they found them. Mulcair changed topics and asked about Jim Love, the chair of the Royal Canadian Mint for his involvement in a tax avoidance scheme. Harper assured him that the matter was a private dispute and his minister has a record for closing tax loopholes. Mulcair changed topics again and asked about the recent rash of military suicides and what was being done. Harper said that their thoughts and prayers went out to their families, and that their support systems were available when they needed them. Mulcair closed the round by asking if they would reverse the closures of the nine veterans offices — to cries of “shame on you!” from the government benches. Harper assured him that the services were still available. Justin Trudeau kept up with asking about the services for those soldiers, to which Harper added that they all understood how these soldiers were suffering and encouraged them to get help. Trudeau changed topics and asked why Senator Gerstein still enjoyed the confidence of the prime minister if he offered an inducement to a sitting legislator. Harper insisted that it wasn’t the case and left it at that. Trudeau pressed, and wondered why he said that Gerstein was not under investigation but the Senate was blocking his testimony to avoid interfering with an investigation. Harper insisted that only Duffy and Wright were under investigation.
Roundup: Reform Act reaction
The Reform Act 2013 has now been tabled, and it’s pretty much as has been reported, with the three key areas around the powers around nominations, caucus membership and forcing a leadership review on party leaders. (Text and sixty-second explainer here). Aaron Wherry rounds up some of the declared support today, including from the Conservative caucus, and those now outside like Brent Rathgeber, as well as some of the reaction and analysis to date. Alice Funke aka Pundit’s Guide looks at ways in which the provisions can be subverted by parties or leaders. Tim Harper points out the bill’s silence about a leader having to deal with an unsuitable candidate during an election. Andrew Coyne has a Q&A with Chong about the bill and tries to dispel some of the myths or concerns, but fails to ask some of the more pertinent questions around membership and inputs.
QP: Treasury Board rules are being followed
With Michael Chong’s Reform Act having taken up the morning’s news cycle, it was going to be a switch to get back into battle mode over the outstanding questions in the ClusterDuff affair. As well, Thomas Mulcair was the only major leader in the House once again, owing to appearances at the Demarais funeral in Montreal, which meant another lacklustre QP. Mulcair started off with by wondering who in the PMO asked to find Benjamin Perrin’s emails. James Moore got up, acting as back-up PM du jour for the first time in months, and reread parts of the PCO letter to the RCMP in response. Mulcair wondered why the head of legal operations wasn’t aware that the emails were frozen, but Moore’s response was little different. Mulcair went onto the rules around emails and the concerns of the Information Commissioner, to which Moore reminded the House that she is independent and can investigate if she wishes. Mulcair went onto a rambling question about PMO employees being warned of the investigation, and didn’t get a response from Moore. Mulcair finally wondered why those emails had been hidden if it wasn’t to further a cover-up, but Moore rejected that premise. Dominic LeBlanc was up for the Liberals, and wondered how it was possible to be unaware of the existence of those emails. Moore repeated that PCO admitted their mistake, and that those emails were now in the hands of the RCMP. Ralph Goodale took over and wondered how PCO could say that they didn’t have the emails in response to his own request for them, but Moore stuck to the PCO letter.
Roundup: A lost learning moment
It was an unusual scene, where the Speaker of the Senate arranged a media event inside the Senate chamber. His purpose was two-fold – to give a bit of a lesson to journalists about the history and role of the institution, as he was alarmed that the kinds of misinformation that he’d seen in the media over the past several months; he also wanted to try and answer as many questions as he could at once. Unfortunately, much of the former goal as a “learning moment” seemed lost on many of my media colleagues as they started asking him questions as though he were the person in charge, as opposed to the presiding officer, and as such, it’s not up to him if they end up calling Michael Runia or Senator Gerstein before committee, but rather, it has to be a decision of the Senate. What they did find out was that the Senate is cooperating on getting those emails requested by the RCMP, and that parliamentary privilege cannot shield senators from an investigation.
QP: Questions about missing emails
As is becoming the new norm on Mondays, Thomas Mulcair was the only main leader in the House, which meant that another soul-crushing day of Paul Calandra talking points was on the way — though one could always hope for a day free of innuendo and accusation as which happened on Friday (though we could also do without his wounded complaints about how the press didn’t like his answers). Once QP got started, Mulcair immediately asked about the reappearance of those emails from Benjamin Perrin, and asked why the story changed yet again. Pierre Poilievre took this one, somewhat surprisingly, and he quoted from the letter from PCO. Mulcair asked about the “unrelated litigation” that Perrin was involved in. Poilievre indicated that he wasn’t sure, but that they were cooperating with the RCMP. Mulcair pressed, but Poilievre simply reread from the letter. When Mulcair wondered wondered an bout the integrity of the he evidence after the government has been holding onto it for three months, and Poilievre again reiterated a passage from the letter. Dominic LeBlanc led off for the Liberals, and wanted assurances that nobody had access to those emails who was in a position to doctor or selectively delete them in any way. Poilievre assured him that they were cooperating with the RCMP. LeBlanc wondered if Harper was waiting of it all to go to trial everything was made public, but Poilievre answered with a single no.
Roundup: Missing Perrin emails found
The Privy Council Office has found those emails from former PMO legal advisor Benjamin Perrin after all, despite previously telling the RCMP that they had been deleted.Oops. And yes, they promise to turn them over to the RMCP right away. It’s also probably just a coincidence that the advisory was sent out at 9 PM on a Sunday while the Prime Minister was wowing the crowd at a certain Jewish fundraising dinner as well, right? Meanwhile, Tonda MacCharles reconstructs that fateful February day when Nigel Wright made the decision to repay Duffy and tries to figure out where it all went wrong. CBC finds out what happened to Chris Montgomery, the Senate staffer who objected to the PMO interference with the Duffy audit report.
Roundup: Michael Chong’s attempt to save Parliament
The story that grabbed everyone’s attention yesterday was the fact that maverick Conservative MP Michael Chong is set to table a bill that would amend the Parliament of Canada Act in order to give riding associations the power to control nomination races instead of the party leader, while giving the party’s National Council the ability to have a veto in place in the event of a hijacked nomination race. This would eliminate the party leader’s ability to threaten MPs that he or she would refuse to sign their nomination papers if they step out of line. It’s the kind of reform that many people have been advocating for some time now, and would remove a substantial lever that the leader currently wields. The bill is also rumoured to contain clauses that would require that caucus chairs be elected and have rules for expelling and re-admitting MPs from caucus, and that the party by-laws must allow for the caucus review of a leader. Those are more problematic suggestions, and the caucus review is especially problematic for a couple of reasons. Number one is that unless leadership selection rules are changed so that it is the caucus that elects the leader, the argument will be that they don’t have the democratic legitimacy to remove said leader – one of the biggest problems with moving to the “more democratic” system whereby the party membership elects the leader (or as the Liberals recently demonstrated, anyone who totally swears that they don’t belong to another party), because that system obliterates accountability. As well, the power to challenge a leader already exists within our system of Responsible Government, whereby all anyone needs to do is declare a loss of confidence in the Prime Minister, and if they can get enough caucus support in the vote – along with the opposition – that leader will go down to defeat. It just requires enough MPs to have the backbone to follow through on it. Paul Calandra insists that his party already allows MPs to have direct input into legislation, which I’m not sure is the point of the bill. Andrew Coyne thinks this bill can save Parliament, and I agree that the first portion would go a long way, but the other portions are more problematic and we should treat them cautiously.
Roundup: No breached ethical walls
Auditors from Deloitte appeared before the Senate’s internal economy committee yesterday morning, and revealed a couple of things – that yes, senior Partner Michael Runia did try calling them, but they didn’t tell him anything, thus preserving their “ethical wall.” Also, their audit operated in a closed system and that there wasn’t any way for there to be any leaks of draft copies. But when the Liberals on the committee tried to move a motion for Runia to appear to explain himself, Conservatives on the committee blocked it, saying that they didn’t have the expertise to conduct an investigation parallel to the RCMP’s. Nor has there been any call for Senator Gerstein to appear to explain himself either. The Liberals will be moving a motion in the full Senate next week to give the committee the mandate to pursue these questions, but we’ll see if there is enough support. Kady O’Malley finds three key points from that testimony, and makes the relevant connections to the Wright testimony in the RCMP ITO. Incidentally, PMO has hired three different law firms to deal with the ClusterDuff file.
QP: Backhanded allegations about Mulcair
With Harper off at Newmarket doing pre-budget consultations, but with the news cycle being consumed by the Conservatives on the Senate Internal Economy committee’s reluctance to call that senior partner from Deloitte before them to testify, it was likely to be a day full of non sequiturs delivered by Paul Calandra. Thomas Mulcair started off by asking why the government asked their senators to block the appearance of Michael Runia before them. Paul Calandra responded that they learned that the audit was done without interference. When Mulcair pressed, Calandra immediately turned to the “You sat on a bribe allegation for 17 years!” talking point. Mulcair changed topics, and asked about the report that CSE was conducting intelligence during the G20 in Toronto. Rob Nicholson reminded him that CSE doesn’t have the authorisation to spy on Canadians. When Mulcair asked if they did it anyway, Nicholson reminded him that they couldn’t even ask allies to spy on Canadians. Mulcair tried to tie this in with the ClusterDuff allegations, but Nicholson reminded him that CSE has judicial oversight. Joyce Murray led off for the Liberals, and asked about the suicide of two soldiers connected CFB Shilo and asked what action the minister was taking to address the issue. Nicholson offered the families his condolences and assured her that the Canadian Forces were investigating. Ralph Goodale was up next, and returned to the issue of Runia and Gerstein being blocked from testifying at committee, but Calandra tried to insist that the Liberals defended those three suspended senators. Goodale demanded to know why Gerstein remained chair of the Senate a banking committee, but Calandra continued to insist that the Liberals fought against holding those senators to account.